Explain FATE to me

[Halivar]

If Bob doesn't accept, hand it to the GM, and poor Bob has to hand one to the GM too.

This wouldn't work for PVP at all​. Seems like the person proffering the rejected Compel should get the Fate point.

 

[Umbran]

This wouldn't work for PVP at all​. Seems like the person proffering the rejected Compel should get the Fate point.

No. Because that encourages spamming them with Compels to earn Fate Points from them - either they get massive complications, or you get all their Fate Points, and they do it to you, and it is a mess.

I haven't read Fate Accelerated, but I see this as why you have the GM in between. The GM gains nothing in the exchange.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I picked up both FATE and FATE: Accelerated, and I would like to run Accelerated as a pick up game sometime. But there are some concepts I just plain am not grokking.

What is the difference between the High Concept and the other 2-3 non-Trouble Aspects the book suggests you take? It seemed like the other Aspects were just more High Concepts. Also, I didn't see any examples of these "lesser" Aspects.

Mechanically there is no difference between the High Concept, the Trouble, and any other character related aspect. It's simply categorising to make things easier to choose and to remember. A one sentence summary of your character will basically be your high concept aspect and possibly one or two others.

 

[Umbran]

Mechanically there is no difference between the High Concept, the Trouble, and any other character related aspect.

For use in play, that's correct. In terms of character development - the campaign progresses in terms of "Milestones". In a comic-book analogy: A minor milestone happens at the end of one issue. A significant milestone happens at the end of each trade paperback collection or story arc. A major Milestone happens when something really book-changing happens.

At a milestone, you can usually swap around a skill, maybe rename an Aspect, and such - greater. While they don't outright forbid it, the base rules strongly suggest your High Concept should only change at a Major Milestone, if it ever changes at all.

In some FATE-based games, some things in character generation may hang off your High Concept (like Extras in Atomic Robo must be implied by your High Concept, not by just any Aspect).

 

[Rechan]

Found some useful stuff here.

The guy at Sly Flourish has made a D&D hack for Fate Accelerated.

Also, in order to help Aspects and add story to them, Rob Donoghue has an interesting article about creating anchors to places or people to make the aspect able to bring in to the game.

 

[SkidAce]

Found some useful stuff here.

The guy at Sly Flourish has made a D&D hack for Fate Accelerated.

Also, in order to help Aspects and add story to them, Rob Donoghue has an interesting article about creating anchors to places or people to make the aspect able to bring in to the game.

Brilliant! Thanks for the find.

 

[SarahNewton]

Hi folks,

Just my two-penn'orth:

- High Concept is literally just your character concept - if you had to describe your character in a single short phrase. It's almost like your character class or occupation with maybe your race and anything else major built in. "Suave Jet-Setting Super-Spy in a Tux"; "Frustrated Farm-Boy With Dreams of Adventure"; "Wood-Elf Ranger Exiled Since Birth".

- You invoke an aspect - any aspect - for a game mechanical bonus. Your allies can invoke one of *your* aspects for a bonus *to them*. You can invoke the crappy side of a bad guy's aspect to get a game mechanical bonus *for you*. Equipment and places can have aspects, and you can invoke them as above.

- You compel an aspect to say that something bad happens because of it. If you're running across the Pack Ice of a Frozen Lake, a compel says the ice breaks *and you can't get across*. It's not a bonus-or-penalty thing; it actually says something happens. You can compel something bad happening because of the nature of a thing, person, or place (like the pack ice); or you can compel something bad happening because of the character of a person - something they'd decide to do. So, if you have "Light-Fingered As Hell", you could be compelled to steal something in the king's throne room *and get caught*.

- If you compel an NPC or a situation so something bad happens to the bad guys, it costs you a fate point.

- If you accept a compel on yourself - something bad happens to you because of an aspect - you *gain* a fate point. You can choose to compel yourself - "Hey, I'm in the throne room! Of course I'd steal something and get caught!" - to get a fate point for yourself.

- One player can *propose* a compel of another PC's decisions. "Hey! Your character would steal something and get caught, right?" The PC's player doesn't have to go with it - "no way! This is the *king* we're talking about!" - players always retain ultimate control over their characters. It doesn't cost the proposing player a fate point; if the PC accepts the compel, he gets a fate point from the GM (assuming the GM agrees with the compel, of course).

- If you don't like the compel of an event - like the ice pack - you can pay a fate point to avoid it. The ice will probably still break, but you'll get across.

Invokes are usually pretty straightforward to grok. With compels, it's probably good to stick with self-compels, or compels of bad guys' and location aspects, until you get the hang of it, imho.

Cheers!

Sarah